Star Trek Continues Reaches Goal to Build Engineering Set + 3 Days Left in Kirkstarter 2.0

Fan series Star Trek Continues has been fundraising over the past month in their second ever Kickstarter campaign in the hopes of raising enough to make new episodes and, if stretch goals are met, build new sets. This week the series announced they have reached their first stretch goal, with pledges totaling over $150,000, which will allow them to build Scotty’s engine room.

#ScottyNeedsAnEngineRoom
Upon the premier of the Kickstarter (or, Kirkstarter) almost a month ago, there was an immediate influx of donations, with pledges reaching over $40K in the first 12 hours and the campaign goal of $100K within weeks. The initial $100K will go toward funding of the next two episodes of the fan series, which takes place in the 4th and 5th years of the original Enterprise’s five year mission. The STC team reached their first stretch goal of $150,000 just yesterday, which will pay for a complete engine room set.

The cast and crew have been releasing videos throughout the campaign, which are sent by email to backers, showing testimonials from fans, cast members, and crew members. They have also released a number of videos in the theme of the Kickstarter: the TOS episode “A Piece of the Action”. Vic Mignonga (Kirk) and Todd Haberkorn (Spock) do a great Kirk and Spock doing bad 1920’s gangster accents. It’s fantastic.

Onwards toward $175,000 for a planet set
It isn’t quite Star Trek without the landing party beaming down to an oval of gravel with six big rocks in the back every week. The second stretch goal that the STC team hopes to reach is $175,000, which will allow them to build a planet set. At the time of writing, the campaign has just passed the first stretch goal of $150K. With only 3 days left, will they be able to meet their next stretch goal?

Episode 4 to premier at Phoenix Comicon this May
Star Trek Continues has just confirmed that the 4th episode in the series, which wrapped principal photography along with episode 5 last month, will be premiering over Memorial Day weekend at Phoenix Comicon. TrekMovie will be there covering the con and the premier, which is particularly special for us as TrekMovie’s own Kayla Iacovino (that’s me) will be making her onscreen debut in the episode. Okay, okay, so it’s a featured extra role, but you can bet I’ll be watching for it to appear on my extensive IMDB page. I had the pleasure of being on set for part of the filming of episode 4. They even did my hair and makeup, put me in costume, and let me wander the halls of the Enterprise taking as many selfies as I liked. I took a lot of selfies.

Episode 4 of Star Trek Continues to premier at the 2015 Phoenix Comicon

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TrekMadeMeWonder

I must go there and donate. I want to be part of this effort!

February 12, 2015 5:33 pm

A. Tre Kfan

These guys are the best in the Trek fan show business. Join me and go donate!

February 12, 2015 5:46 pm

CmdrR

$175K for gravel and fake rocks? Home Depot should be ashamed of its prices.

As for engineering, I truly hoped in every movie that they would recreate Scotty’s TOS mancave of an engine room, but on a 1:1 scale with no visual trickery. The general design is just awesome. All it needs is size, not a central light bulb.

Does anyone know if the STC team has said whether this will be the Engineering set we saw in season 1, 2 or 3? Or perhaps the 1970s retro cool Phase II set?

February 12, 2015 6:35 pm

CmdrR

Ah, CD. I read that too quickly.
I would still rather they scout actual locations. I think TOS found every P-Class planet (p for papier mache) in the Milky Way. STC should paint a few goats and climb a few real rocks. They have done some in past eps, I think.
Let’s see Michelle lead a landing party to Bikini Beach Planet. That would raise donations!

February 12, 2015 7:59 pm

Ioccocco

Scott: most likely they would choose season 3 TOS, since their episodes are supposed to be set in the 4th season. They try to be very accurate with everything else. Although, if you look closely, the female uniforms are earlier versions, pre-season 3 uniforms, which had a plungier neck line.

February 12, 2015 10:07 pm

Cygnus-X1

…the initial $100K will go toward funding of the next two episodes of the fan series, which takes place in the 4th and 5th years of the original Enterprise’s five year mission.

Hmm…This would seem to imply either a flashback/flashforward story or time travel, unless I’m mistaken about the STC episodes being made in sequence to fill out the final two seasons of TOS that never were—i.e. firstly a Season 4 followed by a Season 5. But, only on Tuesday.

Either way, I’m definitely looking forward to these!

“The bee’s knees” — Ha! Love that hip slang!

February 12, 2015 10:09 pm

Jeffrey S. Nelson

Why hasn’t trekmovie.com done an article on the latest Star Trek New Voyages (Phase 2) episode, “Mind-Sifter”? And starshipexter.com recently completed its standout episode, “The Tressaurean Intersection” after years of delay. Where is the coverage on these two shows?? The latter is a milestone for brothers Jimm and Josh Johnson. The latter’s role as the Andorian communications officer, Lt. B’Fuselek is terrific. Jimm Johnson as Captain Garrovick of the Exeter is also terrific. “Mind-Sifter” from New Voyages is also good, but I think actor Brian Gross as Kirk pales in comparison to Vic as Kirk in Star Trek Continues productions.

February 12, 2015 11:56 pm

madtrekfanuk

With all due respect the engineering set used in the original series cast movies (that is the refit Constitution Class, ST:TMP -> ST:VI) was mcuh better than the engineering set used in the original TV series. It was designed from all the technical drawings/schematics done by Mike Minor, Joe Jennings, Richard Taylor and of course Andy Probert. It was logical in the sense of it’s layout with vertical intermix chamber and horizontal power transfer conduits that led to the warp nacelle pylons. Everything about it just seemed “right” whereas in the original TV series it just looked like a 1960’s set (apologies if that offends any lovers of the original series engineering set but just my thoughts on the matter)

February 13, 2015 12:19 am

Kev

hmm I hate to seem like a bringer of trouble here but wasnt there some sort of drama going on with this series a little while ago, as its because of that I had written it off.

although I dont remember what it was exactly

and sorry in advance here as I hate to open old wounds to say the least but its kind of why I decided to distance myself from following this after the Apolo and Klingon episode, although I can not for the life of me remember what it was.

anyways is that the actual V16 they used on a piece of the action, or just one like it? as in the car world we really dont have alot of videos or information about those old american cars

besides maybe Duesenbergs, but even then that is spotty at best., as its always about some italian thing called an aventador or a huricain made by a german nowadays.

February 13, 2015 1:51 am

Timncc1701

Didn’t happen unless we see the selfies. ;)

February 13, 2015 2:18 am

Newdivide1701

At rate things are going, how long till Bad Robot says it’s going to start funding for a new episode on a monthly basis? Which I wouldn’t mind at all.

February 13, 2015 4:15 am

northstar

50K for the engineering set? Is it gold plated? 25K for some papier mache rocks and plastic plants? Wow…

February 13, 2015 5:00 am

B Kramer

Excellent and congrats. Hopefully you’ll get the set ‘to visit strange new world’ too.

LLAP

February 13, 2015 7:24 am

Ensign Ricky

What about Stellar Cartography???

February 13, 2015 7:57 am

Kirk's Girdle

Engineering set? Awesome! Planet set? Not so much. Those sets were one of the major weaknesses of the original. I know they want to be authentic but you shouldn’t try too hard to slavishly recreate chintz. Set dress any vacant lot and use green screen for set extension.

I’ve contributed, and I can’t wait to see the new episodes. I hope they do manage to make a planet set; that would give them a lot more flexibility in their stories.

If you get a planet set, could you take us to Vulcan again? Those glimpses we got in “Amok Time” were not enough….

February 13, 2015 9:43 am

Desertrat

I donated $100 for this Kirkstarter. I feel if I watch, I can at least reward them for their stellar efforts.

As for the New Voyages, their episode releases are few and far between. I just don’t like the acting and overall feel of the show. I know Cawley and company really do their best, but I think Vic and crew have tapped into something that is very much like the original series.

Remember guys, remain humble and don’t forget the fans who watch you.

February 13, 2015 10:20 am

B Kramer

18:kg you forget, the extra stage/set space can be used also for other planet buiding interiors and other ship interiors as well presumably. Green screen alone doesn’t cut it but the combo would.

February 13, 2015 11:01 am

Kirk's Girdle

They specifically wrote it as planet set. I just don’t want to see a return to red skied dioramas, which looked incredibly fake in both TOS and TNG.

February 13, 2015 11:12 am

Jon

They could save a lot of money if they would just use a brewery :) .

Seriously, I can’t wait until the next STC episodes are released…great job all around to the folks producing these gems.

February 13, 2015 1:32 pm

Jack

See, and I always preferred the planet sets over outdoor scenes. They looked more alien. Cheesy, but alien.

February 13, 2015 6:15 pm

Marja

8, CmdrR, haha Class P planets did seem to proliferate. Do you want them to go back to Vasquez Rocks? That location got a bit of (over)use … it does cost a shitelode of money to truck all the filming equipment people and trailers out to a location though. That alone would probably need a second Kickstarter. Probs cheaper for them to build locations in a studio … glittery papier mache here we come!

13 kev, plenty of that history on this very site about a year or so ago. Ugh. Let’s just say there was some bad blood between some people at a couple of productions. Nuff said there.

16 Northstar, remember you have to pay the folks who buy the stuff to make the stuff, and for them to craft it. You need someone with some expertise.

21 DesertRat, Still, new releases should at least be mentioned on TrekMovie. Not sure what was going on thar.

I loved Exeter and hope they can come back. “Tressaurian Intersection” was quite good as far as science-oriented story. Exeter could use some improvement in the acting sphere, but the Science Officer and Captain and that wonderful Andorian Comms Officer came across pretty well.

Farragut, meh. Sets are great, exterior [or studio?] locations are great, but the only likeable character for me is the female Engineering Officer. For some reason it seems like a vanity project for the guy who plays the captain; even moreso than STC is for Vic Mignona, I suppose some would say; though I think Mignona has surrounded himself with a very good cast. Now my only wish is that they get Mr Haberkorn’s eyebrows right. ;-}

The only two productions that have diversity of casting [i.e. more than one African-American guy] are Phase II/NV/whatev and STC. Now that’s like TOS.

These episodes are excellent! Simply excellent. I want more! Giving money is a good thing. Hell, I’d like to see these good folk get paid. Best fan franchise out there Keep up the good work.

February 13, 2015 10:54 pm

Dom

The diorama planet sets were wonderful. Fake, yes, but alien in a way the adapted real locations would struggle to be (essentially looking like the Hollywood hills or Vancouver forests on many shows!) and, besides, they were really cool looking.

Anyway, with a little added CGI trickery, I suspect we’ll be getting the equivalent of a Star Trek Remastered set. And it’ll be lovely to see engineering again!

When I was very young (up to about 8) I assumed the Star Trek movies would be on the same sets, with the same uniforms, only longer and more elaborate. STC is making up for what was inevitably a disappointment when I saw ST: TMP, whatever the film’s merits.

Frustratingly, the pledge drive is on in January/February, which is always this freelancer’s worst time of year. A shame the drive wasn’t February/March, as I would have had some money in my account to contribute. At the moment, I’m still recovering from Christmas!

February 14, 2015 3:14 am

Daniel

Dom, Kickstarter doesn’t charge your credit card until the campaign is finished, and then you probably have 30 days or so to pay. I’m just saying you don’t have to pay the exact day that you contribute to the campaign.

February 14, 2015 4:43 am

Newdivide1701

I woudn’t mind visual trickery on here, even if they only have 3 walls and use green screens to complete the rest. And inside the mesh having it a green screen as well with either the conduits we’ve seen on the original or even pictures of the National Ignition Facility they used on Star Trek Into Darkness to actually see a warp core. Or even CG conduits like on TMP.

February 14, 2015 5:10 am

PiperKev

“Kayla ‘Mad Dog’ Iacovino”? Nice! ;-)

February 14, 2015 5:57 am

Ted C

I love Trek but I can not believe people would actually contribute money to something like this. “Hum..fund a retirement plan or give money to some group trying to recreate Star Trek?” If you contribute a certain amount will they act better?

February 14, 2015 6:22 am

Lt. Dakin

I am contributing and I fund my retirement plan.

February 14, 2015 7:12 am

Vinny C

They are doing a great job can’t wait for the next episode. The cast is amazing and their attention to detail,the look of the ship and lighting are perfect.

February 14, 2015 7:35 am

Lemingsworth Bint

The hokey planet sets of TOS and TNG are a look that should be preserved if you are trying to emulate those eras. A little gravel and paper mache boulders should do fine.

It would be nice to see a planet scenes shot around Mono Lake in eastern Cali – very alien looking – just stay away from Vasquez rocks outside of LA – way over used in TOS – but something every TOS fan should visit. keep up the great work – every episode is high quality in every way.
sure would love to visit the set for some selfies

February 14, 2015 1:21 pm

Dom

So they’ve got the planet set! Woo hoo!! Awesome!

Well done guys! :)

February 14, 2015 5:15 pm

Prodigal Son

This is going to be really cool.

February 14, 2015 9:33 pm

Toonloon

I love these guys!

February 15, 2015 3:56 am

Daoud, The Sinfonian

Location shooting near them would be fine… Georgia’s woods are nothing like Vancouver’s. The Okefenokee would be interesting, as would be many of the nearby underdeveloped Atlantic beaches in South Georgia.

But now I have a question. Is there any friction between the New Voyages people and the Continues people? It seems some of the messages I have read on this webpage would make it seem so.

February 16, 2015 11:56 am

B Kramer

42. Way to go guys. Looking forwards to more great trek and the new sets. LLAP

February 16, 2015 1:04 pm

Eric

Ted C, how is donating a few dollars funding episodes of STC on par with funding a retirement plan? People spend $12 to see a movie for a few hours of entertainment. Maybe someone donated $20 towards two or three episodes of Star Trek Continues? Let people spending their entertainment money however they like.

I am sure the people who are donating big dollars for a walk-on role have money to spare that the rest of us don’t. Most people are just donating with that can afford to contribute to something they enjoy. I don’t they are breaking the bank over it.

February 16, 2015 2:52 pm

Daniel

Ted C, a lot of people just skip Starbucks for a few days and use that money to contribute. $20 is a big deal if you can get a few thousand people to pay that much. I watch these fan productions, I enjoy them, so I contribute what I think it is worth to me.

1869. IDIC Lives! – February 20, 2015 I feel that the future of Star Trek is on tv, we have only to make the suits realize it. Should we organize an actual write-in campaign? That was the way we got things done in the old days but then we over-did it and Trek became a movie. All we wanted was another tv series. Be careful what you wish for–now we have The Mess. 1874. Disinvited – February 20, 2015 doesn’t bode well for its fans unless he’s had some epiphany about SF which there’s been no indication as having come to pa$$. He has freely admitted to not understanding it and STAR TREK, and from that stems a certain lack of vision in those regards. I think the ultimate source of the problem is that Paramount doesn’t care all that much about what the long-time Trek fans think. All of the statements by JJ during the press for ST09 and STID about how those were “not movies for Trek fans,” was ultimately coming from Paramount, as I recall JJ saying. JJ is just a smith. A craftsman. His client (Paramount) puts in an order for such and such—a new chain-mail armor, a new Trek movie that will appeal to foreign audiences, whatever—and JJ pulls the lever at Bad Robot industries which goes to work producing the product and delivering the order. We’re all familiar with the story of how Paramount offered to sell the Trek property to Gene Roddenberry for about $150K back in the early 1970s, but GR was unable to raise the funds. Trek is just an income-generating property to Paramount, nothing more nor less. I think that our only hope is that we get lucky and a visionary filmmaker with clout goes to Paramount with a proposal… Read more »

February 20, 2015 1:48 pm

Cygnus-X1

P.S.

I should have said: I don’t think that a writing campaign would have any impact unless it could demonstrate to Paramount that a substantial portion of their reliable Trek fan base—namely the people who will pay to see anything with “Star Trek:” in the title—is going to boycott their products until they *resume* living up to the original spirit, purpose, artistic values and sensibilities of TOS.

As the TOS movies were faithful enough to the spirit of TOS, as far as I’m concerned.

February 20, 2015 1:52 pm

IDIC Lives!

#47 Cygnus-X1

I intend to say more tomorrow but unfortunately, it is probably harder to get people together to boycott today than it was in the 1970s when we did have some victories, like getting ST:TMP created. It should be easier today because of social media/Internet (look at the Arab Spring and other events made possible through social media), BUT people are not as cohesive today, many opposing opinions, an opinionated age in general.

February 20, 2015 3:35 pm

Cygnus-X1

48. IDIC Lives! – February 20, 2015

How can you know how much of an effect the writing campaign had back in the 1970s? I recall reading in a few places that it was the huge success of Star Wars (1977) that prompted Paramount to take Trek to the big screen. Prior to Star Wars, sci-fi and especially “space” movies weren’t taken all that seriously in Hollywood.

February 20, 2015 3:53 pm

Cygnus-X1

48. IDIC Lives! – February 20, 2015 It should be easier today because of social media/Internet (look at the Arab Spring and other events made possible through social media), BUT people are not as cohesive today, many opposing opinions, an opinionated age in general. This is what troubles me when I see that there is almost no Trek series or movie with a strong consensus amongst people here as being good, save perhaps TOS on TV and TWOK on the big screen. I never imagined that there would be Trek fans who didn’t entirely approve of TNG. I’d never met any such people in real life and meeting them here is a new thing for me. There are even more people who did not approve of DS9, and many more still who did not approve of VOY and ENT. Most fans find the TNG movies “inconsistent,” at best, and obviously there’s a deep divide over the BR movies. So, if you’re CBS or even Paramount, the temptation to just disregard all fan opinion as a wash and take no influence from any of it must be pretty strong, I imagine. What we need is some sort of a consensus, not about what constitutes perfect Trek TV or movies, because that would seem damn near impossible, but about what constitutes acceptable Trek TV and film. In other words, a sort of mission statement outlining the basic ingredients that acceptable Trek would comprise. And it should be as general and succinct as possible. There’s no shortage of people who comment here who don’t seem to have any qualifications for Trek being acceptable, other than it having the “Star Trek” label on it. There are still others who are happy to have Trek as an action movie series no more deep or meaningful… Read more »